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Friday, April 4, 2014

Anything Goes

I write romance.

There, I said it.

There are a lot of people who look down on romance – and on
the people who read it and the people who write it – because there’s this weird
idea still hanging on that not only is romance “genre fiction”, it’s somehow
the lowest kind of genre fiction.

It’s kind of like those people who say sarcasm is the lowest
form of humour. Not if you’re doing it right.

The fact that some people look down on romance doesn’t
really bother me. Mostly I’m amused, because I think these people imagine that
romance is still this:

Look out, Nurse Saxon! That amnesiac patient (I'm guessing) is actually a millionaire rake (I'm also guessing).The above cover is a very outdated and narrow view of the genre. Because it can actually be this:

Or this:

Or this:

Or this:

Anything goes! And that’s the most fun thing about this genre. I can write
a spy story, or a funny story, or a horror story, or any story that I want, and
as long as it’s still about people making a connection it still counts. You
won’t find that kind of latitude in other genres.

And that’s why I love it. I love reading it, and I love
writing it, and screw what anyone else thinks. We’re having fun over here.